COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. (CBS) — A meeting was held today in Montgomery County to discuss ways to lower the unemployment rate of recent military veterans. Among the speakers, Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey.

Senator Toomey told the veterans, current service men and woman, and also leaders of companies interested in learning more about hiring veterans, that his main goal was to learn what he could do to help them.

The senator says one of the issues raised by a current serviceman is how training in the military often doesn’t translate to private and — in some cases — even public sector jobs.

“A good example is heavy equipment operators,” Toomey said, “but that training gets them a certificate, that certificate isn’t recognized when they come back home.”

Toomey calls that a simple communications issue that needs to be addressed.

“We’ve got to fix that, because the unemployment rate for returning veterans is way too high,” the senator said. “These are folks that have an awful lot that they can bring to any job.”

Senator Toomey also announced legislation he is supporting called the United We Stand to Hire Veterans Act, which would consolidate employment websites that are currently run separately by the departments of Defense, Labor and Veteran’s Affairs.